| Exiled Aoun
to return to Lebanon "in two weeks" PARIS - The exiled former Lebanese army chief Michel Aoun plans to return to
Lebanon within the next two weeks to prepare for May's general elections, he said in an
interview to be broadcast Wednesday.
"In two weeks I will be in Beirut. I will have candidates in the various districts.
We are ready for the elections," he told La Chaine Parlementaire television channel.
A transcript of the interview was obtained by AFP Tuesday.
The Maronite Christian leader said he would set up joint lists of candidates with the main
opposition figure, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
"I think we will have shared lists, because we have a system of multi-name lists in
Lebanon," he said.
On the Shiite organisation Hezbollah, Aoun said: "No-one is trying to marginalise
Hezbollah, it is Hezbollah which want to marginalise everyone else.
"A state of law is impossible in Lebanon with an army parallel to the official
Lebanese army. Hezbollah must integrate itself with the Lebanese people before we can have
a truly unified state," he said.
Aoun ran a military government before being ousted and forced into exile in France in 1990
by a Syrian-Lebanese offensive. |
